X-Message-Number: 15688 From: "Tim Freeman" <> Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 04:37:52 -0700 Subject: Urban or Rural (missile attacks & new security) References: <> Message #15130 Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 20:12:01 -0500 From: david pizer <> >However, a recent assessment by the National Intelligence Council says that >the risk of a missle attack against the United States involving chemical, >biological or nuclear warheads is greater today that during most of the >cold war and will continue to grow in the next 15 years. How much - how >fast? They don't say This is interesting. Do you have a citation? I looked at: http://www.stimson.org/rd-table/cooper.htm http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/nie/nie99msl.html http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/npr/circ71.htm The last of these is particularly interesting; it claims that most of the risk is to Hawaii and Alaska, not the continental US. There are interesting alternatives to missles. A bomb on a boat would be a lot cheaper, although it would be less useful diplomatically because it relies on stealth and therefore would be hard to make threats with. A nuclear bomb on a truck would perhaps be harder to develop because of the limited size of the truck. Thus, storing patients near a port might be a bad idea. All things being equal, you might want to avoid famous cities like Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York because they make better terrorism targets. Property values are driven up by the fame, so there are good economic reasons to avoid these places anyway. As Dan Quayle said, "I love California; I practically grew up in Phoenix". If the US policians can't keep track of where you are, the foreigners won't pick your city as the first target. If your city is 20th on the list, then by the time they get to you the situation is pretty hopeless, so maybe we don't need to expect to win in that scenario. I think Scottsdale is a good place for Alcor. >Also there are new forms of security that would offer better >protection in a remote area. This is interesting too. Can you be more specific? -- Tim Freeman Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15688